Danielle Collins has seen her 2025 Australian Open campaign come to an end, having been beaten by her in-form compatriot Madison Keys.
Collins made a U-turn on her retirement decision at the end of last year, after revealing that her ‘fertility journey’ would take longer than originally planned for.
The world number 11 has made plenty of headlines since then, with Collins causing controversy after her second round Australian Open match against Destanee Aiava.
This controversy continued into the third round, with Collins being booed onto court ahead of her match against Keys.
Patrick McEnroe reacts to Danielle Collins at the Australian Open
As expected, this Collins situation has prompted many responses and now former world number three doubles player Patrick McEnroe has had his say.
When speaking at an Australian Open press conference, McEnroe explained how this story has taken off in the US.
“Well, people on sports talk shows in the U.S. were talking about it, and it’s pretty rare that that happens in tennis, period, particularly now with what’s going on in sports with the NFL and college football,” said McEnroe.
“For me obviously Danielle had every right to be enjoyed. I thought it was sort of humorous how she handled it. She obviously paid the price a little bit last night getting booed when she came out on the court.
“So I think in some sense it’s good for tennis that you have characters like that, and Danielle is a character, and she’s willing to speak her mind.”
Despite this dividing opinion, Collins is seeing the funny side of the situation after suggesting that she was not bothered by what happened.
Who is replacing Patrick McEnroe at the Laver Cup?
The reason that McEnroe was speaking to the media in Melbourne was to announce his replacement at the Laver Cup.
McEnroe has supported his brother, John McEnroe, as Team World’s vice captain since the inaugural edition in 2017.
However, he is now set to be replaced by two-time former US Open champion Pat Rafter, with Patrick McEnroe handing over the role from 2025.
“First of all, it’s awesome to be here, and the Laver Cup was one of the great things for me to ever be involved with to help my brother out, but the only thing that Pat Rafter and I have in common is the name because they’ve stepped it up big-time bringing him in as the Vice Captain, Hall of Famer, and one of the classiest guys around,” said McEnroe. “To hand it off to you, Patty Rafter, is a true privilege for me. Congrats.”
John McEnroe is also stepping down from his captaincy role, with Andre Agassi the new Team World captain at the Laver Cup.
It is changes all round, as Team Europe have brought in Yannick Noah to replace captain Stefan Edberg.
The 2025 Laver Cup will take place in San Francisco later this year, with Carlos Alcaraz and Taylor Fritz the first two players to have been announced.
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